Great Depression

Myrtle L. Hartle, 83, who lives north of Hagerstown, shares her memories of growing up in the State Line, Pa., area during the Great Depression. Our family lived on a small farm and our parents always managed to feed and clothe the five children in our family, who ranged in age from 1 to 9 years old when the Depression started. I was only 4 at the time and do not recall the first years of the Depression. I had two older brothers and two younger brothers. During the Depression, a little sister joined our family; she does not remember any of the Depression years.

It has been asserted that "history is an argument without end. " This is as it should be because, although all parties in arguments about incidents in history may agree on the facts, they may violently clash over the interpretation of those facts. This became evident when I heard author Amity Shlaes review her book, "The Forgotten Man: A History of the Great Depression," on C-Span. Since then, she has expanded her perspective in several articles in major newspapers. Her judgment about President Roosevelt, his "brain trust" and the various attempts to ameliorate the dehumanizing effects of a deep depression are largely negative.

Great Depression is greatly misunderstood To the editor: The Great Depression is one of the most misunderstood events in American history. We are told from middle school through college that the Great Depression was the result of capitalism gone wild. Even more pervasive is the belief that FDR and the New Deal brought us out of the Great Depression. People tend to believe that the many public works projects during the Great Depression stimulated the economy and brought us out of economic turmoil, but spending is not how an economy grows.

Last week's question: What is the best solution to the current Wall Street crisis? o Give the president the $700 billion bailout solution he wants. - 15 votes (14 percent) o Seize all the financial firms involved and nationalize them. - 27 votes (24 percent) o Let the free market sort everything out, even if it means another Great Depression. - 47 votes (42 percent) o Raise taxes to cover all of the losses. - 2 votes (2 percent) o Do nothing now; solutions have a way of presenting themselves as time goes by. - 20 votes (18 percent)

Dorothy Carlisle was working her first job at a Boston law firm when she heard two of the lawyers talking in the hall. As she walked by, one said something worrisome about the banks, recalled Carlisle, 104, who lives near Williamsport. "Whatever it was, when I went out to lunch that day, I went to my bank and withdrew about $100," Carlisle said. Taking inflation into consideration, that's about $1,200 in 2007 dollars, according to an inflation calculator. "The next day when I went to work and I came off the subway the banks were all closed," she said.

By ANDREA BROWN-HURLEY / Staff Writer photo: RIC DUGAN / staff photographer HALFWAY - Lewis Powell has one thing to say about the new millennium: "It's been a long time coming. " Through one century of change, the Halfway resident has seen the Year 2000 on the horizon. cont. from front page Powell turns 100 on Jan. 29, 2000. What does he think about his centenarian status? "I'm old enough to vote," he said. The world's population has skyrocketed from 1.6 billion to 6.2 billion in the nearly 100 years since Powell was born.

Editor's note: Each Sunday, The Herald-Mail runs "A Life Remembered. " Each story in this continuing series takes a look back -- through the eyes of family, friends, co-workers and others -- at a member of the community who died recently. Today's "A Life Remembered" is about Harry "Red" Edward Smith Jr., who died May 9 at the age of 83. His obituary appeared in the May 10 edition of The Herald-Mail. Throughout his life, Harry "Red" Edward Smith Jr. had a knack for knowing more than could be explained, relatives said.

QUINCY, Pa. -- Debbie Althouse and Elizabeth "Betsy" Snively are self-described tomboys. As children, they both enjoyed climbing to the top of chicken coops. Once up there, Debbie would join her brothers in jumping to the ground, while Betsy sat and used the surroundings as inspiration for her art. The women grew up 125 miles apart but shared much in common for their childhood pursuits. Now, at ages 105 and 103, they live in Quincy Village, a retirement community north of Waynesboro, Pa. Debbie Althouse Debbie, who was born Nov. 11, 1904, has lived the majority of her life in Berks County, Pa. She moved to Quincy Village in 1996, four years after the death of her husband, Harry.

By ANDREA BROWN-HURLEY / Staff Writer photo: RIC DUGAN / staff photographer Mary Shank's memories come to her in fragments, much like the pieces of the jigsaw puzzles she loves to construct. Yet retaining 100 years worth of life experiences isn't easy. cont. from front page On Jan. 1, 2000, the lifelong Hagerstown resident will have lived through parts of three centuries. Shank was born on Sept. 1, 1899. She has raised four children and survived a husband and six siblings.

Don't rehire the company that trashed your house To the editor: Here's an analogy of what the upcoming election looks like to me: You hire a company to look after your property. After they are on the job for some time you go to inspect the property. The carpets and drapes are a shambles; the place is nearly destroyed and the yard is dead. You fire the first company and hire someone else to clean up and repair the damage. After a short time the first company comes back and says that the second company isn't cleaning up the mess fast enough so you should hire them back.

QUINCY, Pa. -- Debbie Althouse and Elizabeth "Betsy" Snively are self-described tomboys. As children, they both enjoyed climbing to the top of chicken coops. Once up there, Debbie would join her brothers in jumping to the ground, while Betsy sat and used the surroundings as inspiration for her art. The women grew up 125 miles apart but shared much in common for their childhood pursuits. Now, at ages 105 and 103, they live in Quincy Village, a retirement community north of Waynesboro, Pa. Debbie Althouse Debbie, who was born Nov. 11, 1904, has lived the majority of her life in Berks County, Pa. She moved to Quincy Village in 1996, four years after the death of her husband, Harry.

Editor's note: Each Sunday, The Herald-Mail runs "A Life Remembered. " Each story in this continuing series takes a look back -- through the eyes of family, friends, co-workers and others -- at a member of the community who died recently. Today's "A Life Remembered" is about Harry "Red" Edward Smith Jr., who died May 9 at the age of 83. His obituary appeared in the May 10 edition of The Herald-Mail. Throughout his life, Harry "Red" Edward Smith Jr. had a knack for knowing more than could be explained, relatives said.

"If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in five years there'd be a shortage of sand," remarked Milton Friedman some years ago. Who is Milton Friedman, you might ask? Well, he won the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1976 and had an opinion on what works and does not work from an economic viewpoint. As I intently listen to the daily economic news and plans of government to put us on the right course, I have a few obvious concerns. Some see the need of government intervention while others disagree.

Dorothy Carlisle was working her first job at a Boston law firm when she heard two of the lawyers talking in the hall. As she walked by, one said something worrisome about the banks, recalled Carlisle, 104, who lives near Williamsport. "Whatever it was, when I went out to lunch that day, I went to my bank and withdrew about $100," Carlisle said. Taking inflation into consideration, that's about $1,200 in 2007 dollars, according to an inflation calculator. "The next day when I went to work and I came off the subway the banks were all closed," she said.

Myrtle L. Hartle, 83, who lives north of Hagerstown, shares her memories of growing up in the State Line, Pa., area during the Great Depression. Our family lived on a small farm and our parents always managed to feed and clothe the five children in our family, who ranged in age from 1 to 9 years old when the Depression started. I was only 4 at the time and do not recall the first years of the Depression. I had two older brothers and two younger brothers. During the Depression, a little sister joined our family; she does not remember any of the Depression years.

Last week's question: What is the best solution to the current Wall Street crisis? o Give the president the $700 billion bailout solution he wants. - 15 votes (14 percent) o Seize all the financial firms involved and nationalize them. - 27 votes (24 percent) o Let the free market sort everything out, even if it means another Great Depression. - 47 votes (42 percent) o Raise taxes to cover all of the losses. - 2 votes (2 percent) o Do nothing now; solutions have a way of presenting themselves as time goes by. - 20 votes (18 percent)

It has been asserted that "history is an argument without end. " This is as it should be because, although all parties in arguments about incidents in history may agree on the facts, they may violently clash over the interpretation of those facts. This became evident when I heard author Amity Shlaes review her book, "The Forgotten Man: A History of the Great Depression," on C-Span. Since then, she has expanded her perspective in several articles in major newspapers. Her judgment about President Roosevelt, his "brain trust" and the various attempts to ameliorate the dehumanizing effects of a deep depression are largely negative.

An unemployed architect named Alfred M. Butts came up with the concept for the game now known as Scrabble during the Great Depression. Butts - who wanted to create a game that combined the vocabulary skills of crossword puzzles and anagrams with the element of chance - studied the front page of The New York Times to calculate how often each of the 26 letters of the English language was used. After figuring out frequency of use, Butts assigned different point values to each letter and decided how many of each letter would be included in the game - which he called "Lexico" before deciding on "Criss-Cross Words.